Nexus 5X seems to have some serious lag issues: have you experienced any?

posted by Victor H. / Nov 26, 2015, 7:46 AM

The Nexus 5X arrived as the hugely anticipated successor to probably the most successful Nexus phone of all times: the Nexus 5. The new 5X, just like the old one, is made by LG and is supposed to take a winning formula and make it better by adding a faster system chip, better camera, a fingerprint scanner, new, faster and more convenient charging standard, and the latest version of Android, 6.0 Marshmallow.

A month or so after the release, though, it seems that more and more problems just continue appearing and plaguing the Nexus 5X.

The most sore one is what people never expected from a pure Android phone made by Google: lag.

In fact, there are four main areas that users complain about: encryption, camera slow-downs, throttling and lag.

Issues with performance in four areas - encryption, camera, throttling and plain lag

The problem with encryption seems to be that the phone is not powerful enough for the full software-accelerated encryption that is enabled and this ruins the performance power. Then, there is the camera that seems to have been given a task tougher than it can swallow and that task is called HDR+. Excellent in theory, HDR+ produces great looking images with amazing dynamics, but is just too computationally intensive and if you try to take a few pictures in quick succession, the camera app will simply stall for a long time.

Third, throttling. Numerous tests have showed that the Nexus 5X is somehow not capable of maintaining proper running speeds on its Snapdragon 808 system chip. The two performance-driven Cortex A57 cores are measured to last no longer than two minutes running at their peak speeds, and than are quickly throttled down to the embarrassing 633MHz, leaving the otherwise battery-savvy A53s take the load. In fact, testing proves that it is not the chip alone that is the cause of this issue, as other Snapdragon 808 phones do not suffer from such a problem.

And finally, there is the plain lag. The phone seems to stutter and slow down way more often than acceptable. Numerous speed tests have already proved that even the two year old Nexus 5 outperforms it in a number of tasks.

So before jumping into dare conclusions, we wanted to ask you, our readers, who happen to own or have used the Nexus 5X: have you experience any of those issues and to what degree? Is it something that is happening to you on a daily basis? Is it a deal-breaker? Vote and let us know about your issues in the comments right below.

Posts: 5029; Member since: Mar 30, 2015

posted on Nov 26, 2015, 11:06 AM 1

Posts: 5693; Member since: Feb 10, 2013

Some people did still complain about performance on the Moto and LG phones with the 808
Its most likely due to encryption, slow/cheap NAND and worse 808 bins (benchmarks for the 5X usually lower than other 808 phones, again cost cutting due to low price)

posted on Nov 26, 2015, 8:38 AM 3

Posts: 43; Member since: Nov 15, 2013

posted on Nov 26, 2015, 9:52 AM 2

Posts: 1442; Member since: Nov 19, 2012

Ecryption and the fingerprint sensor are among the main reasons why I bought the 5X. I have a "normal life", but I keep my passwords on the phone, my personal files on gdrive, dropbox and copy, then there's your facebook account, your gmail account (which I also use for work), your calendar and so on. If you're a kid and use your phone mostly for games, then you can ignore safety and encryption. If you're an adult and have important data on your accounts, then encryption is a huge added value.
And, btw, I'm not seeing any lags with encryption enabled, and the 808 is fast enough and the phone is always pretty smooth. Only sometimes, the phone reloads the home screen or an app. This is not a bug, it simply means that it run out of ram due to many open apps, and that app has been unloaded from memory and must be reloaded. That's when you see a lag. If it happens constantly, then you have too many apps on your phone and need 3GB of ram. But I'd say that, for most users, 2GB are still enough, though 3GB would have definitely been better.

posted on Nov 26, 2015, 7:46 PM 0

Posts: 2146; Member since: Oct 18, 2011

Mis-informed people like you should refrain from commenting. This is not android issue but issue related to Google's poor decisions.
1. Disk Encryption - Google is using ARM V8's encryption commands (CPU based) instead of dedicated disk encryption module. Which I believe exist on Qlacomm's SOC. This cause unnecessary load on cpu and results in lag/stutters.
2. Aggressive Throttling - If you read real reviews on sites like anadtech.com then you'd know A57 cores are throttled down to 633Mhz only after 2 mins of active use. And after 12 mins those cores are completely shut down. A53 cores running at 1.4Ghz are not going to help with stutters.

posted on Nov 26, 2015, 10:38 AM 1

Posts: 1442; Member since: Nov 19, 2012

1. Look at the benchmarks and you'll see how fast encryption is in the 808 and 810. There's not any hardware encryption module. Instead, Qualcomm added dedicated instructions on the 808 and 810 to perform fast software encryption.
Tests have shown that encryption is a lot faster than on the N6, so encryption should not be a problem (and it isn't, in my opinion, given that my 5X is quite fast and I don't have any lag).
2. a processor can reactivate its cores in milliseconds. What's the point of leaving the cores active when you're not using the phone? The 5X has a great battery life, expecially in standby. If apps lag, this can't be due to the processor being throttled when you're NOT using the phone: how could it be? If you're not using it, you can't see any app lagging! ;)
My opinion is that some users have so many installed apps and widgets that 2GB of ram are not enough. When Android doesn't have enough ram, apps start to lag. Those users should choose something with 3GB or more.

posted on Nov 26, 2015, 12:37 PM 1

Posts: 5029; Member since: Mar 30, 2015

This is mostly software optimisation and all linked to the throttling issue.
When the SOC is slowed down everything else suffer.
So they just need to fix this with a software update and there you go.
I hate when idiot jump to conclusion.

posted on Nov 26, 2015, 11:06 AM 0

Posts: 1656; Member since: Jun 06, 2010

posted on Nov 26, 2015, 7:58 AM 3

Posts: 3723; Member since: Aug 16, 2011

For the two weeks I owned one lag was irritatingly-noticeable swiping between homescreens. That and apps took longer to open. Performance-wise it actually seemed like a downgrade from the OG Nexus 5. The only improvements were to its original blatant weaknesses: camera and battery. Everything else stayed the same or got worse...

Posts: 1977; Member since: Aug 15, 2013

posted on Nov 26, 2015, 9:29 AM 0

Posts: 30; Member since: Dec 29, 2013

Mine doesn't lag swiping between things, but scrolling in the browser while a page is loading, or has loaded a lot of comments, definitely stutters.
I have a Nexus 5, it launches everything slightly faster than the 5x when I put them side-by-side, which is sad. So I completely agree with you. The only reason I keep the 5x is for Project Fi, and the two reasons you listed: battery and camera.

posted on Nov 26, 2015, 10:25 PM 0

Posts: 1420; Member since: Sep 04, 2015

Qualcomm should've just killed off the Snapdragon 808 en 810 SoCs instead of modifying and throttling the hell out of them. I mean the 620 seems to leave the 810 quite a bit behind in benchmarks and its a midrange SoC. Instead we now have a selection of high-end devices powered by these SoCs that are a joke and not worth the money that's asked for them.

Posts: 127; Member since: Apr 14, 2014

posted on Nov 26, 2015, 9:24 AM 0

Posts: 1442; Member since: Nov 19, 2012

The 620 does not have dedicated instructions for fast encryption, for example. It's a mid-range processor, and frankly speaking I prefer to have the 808 in my 5X and have full encryption enabled.
You're saying that the 808 is a joke, so how can it be that the 5X is fast and smooth 99% of the time? Users that are experiencing lags are experiencing them probably due to the lack of ram. 2GB might not be enough for some users.

posted on Nov 26, 2015, 12:42 PM 0

Posts: 5; Member since: Oct 13, 2015

posted on Nov 26, 2015, 8:39 AM 0

Posts: 4; Member since: Nov 24, 2015

The 5 has wireless charging. The 5x took that away, added a USB socket that doesn't fit any of my cables, did not add WiFi calling or tmo band 12, and now all this. I'm sure glad I have my two year old n5 and a spare.

posted on Nov 26, 2015, 8:53 AM 1

Posts: 9; Member since: Nov 11, 2015

There was apparently some confusion about this when the Nexus 5X was first announced, but according to the Google specs (store.google.com/product/nexus_5x), the phone does support band 12.
And there's a T-Mobile tweet that says the Nexus 5X supports WiFi calling out of the box: twitter.com/TMobile/status/648919023158206464. (Note that tweet from September also says "no band 12, but we will be working with Google to enable this. I would *presume* from the Google spec sheet that this happened, or will happen soon.)

posted on Nov 28, 2015, 11:10 AM 0

Posts: 732; Member since: Sep 18, 2012

So SD801 ftw?
Too bad people without facts just take things at face value. Just because SD808 is theretically more powerful than sd801, manufacturers have to put sd808 or sd810 because that is what the common non-technically inclined majority get impressed by.

posted on Nov 26, 2015, 9:13 AM 0

Posts: 443; Member since: Aug 25, 2014

The 801 is awesome, my z3 runns superb on marshmallow and the battery is stellar. Better day to day preformens and way better battery than Z5. The 810 is the real flagship killer, hell it even killed the original flagship killler (O+2). :)

posted on Nov 26, 2015, 9:25 AM 0

Posts: 1691; Member since: Mar 04, 2009

YEs Yes Yes, after just 2 weeks the phone is So SO laggy this was the main reason i upgraded from the Nexus 5, so laggy that it crasshes the camera every time, home screen swiping lagging alot aswell I am now restarting the phone daily & installing task killers that help a tiny bit.
The phone works fine for the first 5 minutes or so after a restart but then goes slow & lag's soon after a restart.
Google an UPDATE PLEASE

Posts: 1691; Member since: Mar 04, 2009

posted on Nov 26, 2015, 10:12 AM 1

Posts: 254; Member since: Nov 24, 2013

Qualcomm better fix the mess the put themselves and other oems in by releasing these unimpressive problematic chips 810,808 . if i was going to pick up a flagship phone in 2015 i would have picked the awesome note 5 or the great iphone 6s and stay away from these chips .
anyway im sure 820 will be much better but im already picked the best phone i have ever used a black 64 gigs iphone 6s

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